WASHINGTON, 26 December 2004 — Boston supporters could finally forget the “Curse of the Bambino” as the Red Sox ended an 86-year championship drought, but 2004 closed with Major League Baseball haunted by another curse - steroids.
Revelations of grand jury testimony in early December featured an admission of doping by Jason Giambi and a confession from record-setting home run slugger Barry Bonds that he took supplements from the scandal-linked BALCO labs.
San Francisco Giants star Bonds, who said he did not know the nature of the substances he ingested, hit a single-season record 73 home runs in 2001 and has a career total of 703 homers - 53 shy of breaking Hank Aaron’s all-time American homer record and just 11 shy of matching Babe Ruth for second on the list.
For a game where centuries of statistics are meticulously kept, Bonds has raised a cloud of suspicion over hallowed records.
“I think we need to do everything we can to put everyone’s mind at ease about players using steroids,” New York Mets pitcher Tom Glavine said.
The scandal led owners and the players union to agree on a tougher drug policy after a first ever season of testing for steroids, a program ridiculed as inadequate by World Anti-Doping Agency officials.
“I will leave no stone unturned in accomplishing our goal of zero tolerance by the start of spring training and am confident we will achieve this goal,” major league Commissioner Bud Selig said.
The doping scandal overshadowed one of the best stories in baseball history as the Red Sox captured their first World Series title since 1918, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to capture the best-of-seven showdown.
Derek Lowe became the first pitcher in baseball history to win the last game in all three playoff rounds, forever banishing the Curse of the Bambino - a jinx dating to the 1919 sale of legend Ruth to the rival New York Yankees.
